MTN plans to compensate some of its one million customers who were hit by a network outage this week.
The telecommunications operator said on Monday that it was experiencing connectivity issues that affected approximately one million voice, SMS and data customers.
[See also: Who MTN will reimburse for network outage]
The connectivity issues started on Sunday, said MTN’s executive for group corporate affairs, Chris Maroleng.
Customers, for example, who bought a data, SMS or airtime bundle on Sunday that they couldn’t use over a 24-hour period could qualify for the reimbursement, explained Maroleng.
“We need to establish of those one million, how many of them actually were affected,” Maroleng said.
“We intend to make amends and compensate those subscribers who are eligible,” he said.
MTN, though, is at the early stages of determining who could qualify for a reimbursement, explained Maroleng.
MTN said on Tuesday morning that its network problems on Sunday and Monday were caused by a “minor glitch in the nodes carrying traffic related to the affected customers”.
During the day on Tuesday, some MTN customers said they were still experiencing connectivity issues.
“I’m in Plettenberg bay; I’ve not been able to SMS to other phones for the last 24 hours — although SMS from land facilities reach me,” MTN customer David Friedman complained on Tuesday evening.
Another MTN customer, Amu Nwankoti, told of network problems on late Tuesday.
“MTN says they resolved the network problem meanwhile I’m still experiencing it — [I’m] thinking of changing this service provider. It’s so full of nonsense,” Nwankoti said via e-mail.
However, on Tuesday night, MTN released a statement saying that its “network has been fully restored and all services are now fully restored”.
MTN is South Africa’s second biggest mobile network by subscribers after Vodacom. In October last year, MTN reported that it had 29m subscribers in South Africa. — Fin24
